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Thursday, March 20, 2008
Felton’s team shows it merits big stage
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Washington — They groused about the officiating, but the gripes weren’t heartfelt. They might have lost the game, but the Georgia Bulldogs knew full well they’d won the month and the season and their longstanding struggle for credibility. They won’t be national champions, but they’re no longer the program that, just five years ago, removed itself from the NCAA tournament in shame.
Georgia returned to the national stage on Thursday and exited with its dignity not just intact but enhanced. The team that finished last in the SEC East gave a No. 3 seed a rough ride — “We had control of the game,” Dennis Felton said — yielding to a late Xavier surge and a barrage of free throws. No dishonor in that.
“We’re content with the fact we won the SEC,” junior guard Billy Humphrey said. “But we definitely weren’t ready to go home.”
About here, we must step back and try to put this in context: The team that entered the SEC tournament expected to lose its first game and then its coach not only played its way into the NCAA tournament but led a heavy favorite by nine points at halftime, by 11 four minutes into the second half, by seven inside the final 10 minutes. The team that was 4-12 in the SEC regular season was this close to Round 2 of the Big Dance.
And where, everybody was wondering, had this tough and resourceful bunch been a month ago, when Georgia was completing the 10-losses-in-11-games slide that put Felton’s job in clear and present danger? Had the coach found five new guys on the waiver wire?
“I have a pretty simple answer,” Felton said. “We’ve always been pointing in this direction. But there’s such a fine line between winning and losing, and so many games we competed well enough to win except for a moment or two at the end. And then we started making timely shots, and we began to develop confidence instead of wondering.”
We saw that Thursday. We saw Georgia, afire with a convert’s belief, take the fight to Xavier. We saw a No. 3 seed so rattled that it burned three timeouts in the first 23 minutes. “We had enough energy,” Humphrey said. “We thought we could steal a game … [But] once the whistles started going in their favor, you could feel [the Musketeers’] motors running.”
It came undone in the space of six possessions — two Georgia turnovers, two missed shots, eight blurry-fast Xavier points in transition — that took the 14th seed from five points ahead to three behind. But even near the end the Bulldogs had a chance, down three with 1:24 remaining, and then the noblest Dog of all did a silly thing: Sundiata Gaines fouled Drew Lavender 30 feet from the goal.
“That was an absolutely critical point,” Felton said. “I almost fell out of my chair.”
There’s a greater point, though: Felton enters the offseason still having a chair in Georgia’s athletics department, and in the course of eight days he and his program finally emerged from Harrick Hell.
“As we continue to progress and be a member of this tournament on a regular basis,” Felton said, “we’ll remember this as a starting point.”
A man asked Felton if, for all he accomplished at Western Kentucky and all he might still accomplish, this coach could ever win anything bigger than those four games in Atlanta. “Yeah,” he said. “The national championship.”
Felton was smiling, but he wasn’t kidding. “We want to be consistently in the NCAA tournament picture all the time,” he said. “We want Georgia to be a fixture at the top of the food chain.”
Georgia. At the summit. In men’s basketball. A week ago the questioner would have laughed out loud. Now he simply thought to himself, “Hey, stranger things have happened.”
Because one just did.
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Falcons must draft Jake Long
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
It’s a no-brainer, really. Come the NFL draft, the definitive choice at No. 3 overall for the Falcons isn’t any of those quarterbacks with potential, especially since this is a franchise that needs players of now instead of tomorrow.
You also could have Glenn Dorsey and Chris Long sitting there next month as wonderful defensive linemen, but here’s the problem for the Falcons: Dorsey and that Long aren’t wonderful offensive linemen.
Two words: Jake Long. The Falcons should draft the nearly flawless Michigan man of 6-foot-7 and 313 pounds, stick the guy at left tackle on their offensive line and then move on with the rest of their lives for the next decade or so. Just to make sure that neither the Miami Dolphins nor the St. Louis Rams snatch Long at No. 1 or No. 2, the Falcons should trade up or do whatever they can to make this happen.
It’s got to happen.
Here are two more words: Cleveland Browns. By drafting Long, the Falcons would have a decent chance to evolve into a Cleveland franchise that went from nothing to something in a hurry. That’s because Browns officials had the foresight to use their No. 3 pick overall last year to draft Joe Thomas as their nearly flawless Wisconsin man of 6-foot-6 and 313 pounds. They stuck Thomas at left tackle, and then they watched all sorts of splendid things happen.
With Long, the Falcons could have Thomas-like results.
“Hey, you know. I could not agree with you more on that,” said Thomas Dimitroff, showing considerable wisdom with such a comment after barely two months on the job as the Falcons’ general manager. “I know [Browns general manager] Phil Savage well, and I’ve lauded him on his approach last year, because what he did with Thomas was really help the quarterback [Derek Anderson] out who was sort of still in the growth process.
“An offensive lineman can really set the tone. You can continue to build, and [we could] sort of refine what we have along the offensive line, and I think it could open up a lot of possibilities.”
Glad that’s settled. So, is it OK to tell the world right now that the Falcons definitely will use their first pick on Jake Long, a noted perfectionist who was associated with only two penalties and two sacks in his four seasons at Michigan?
Dimitroff replaced his answer with a hearty laugh, before saying, “He’s definitely a heckuva talent.”
For one, Thomas solidified what was a ghastly offensive line. The Browns went from ranking among the worst NFL teams in sacks allowed two seasons ago at 54 to one of the best last season at 19. In case you’re wondering, the Falcons spent last season ranking among the league’s worst teams in sacks allowed with 47.
Thomas also helped the Browns discover the run when Jamal Lewis woke up his dormant career to become only the second 1,000-yard rusher for the Browns in 23 seasons. In case you’re wondering, the Falcons ranked among the NFL’s worst rushing teams last season after leading the league for three straight years.
There was the Browns’ shaky quarterback situation, too. Since the talented Brady Quinn was just a rookie, the Browns were forced to use the unheralded Anderson. It didn’t matter. He stayed erect long enough behind Thomas to become a Pro Bowl alternate. In case you’re wondering, the Falcons also have a shaky quarterback situation. They have career backup Chris Redman, former Georgia star D.J. Shockley, who is recovering from a damaged knee, and Joey Harrington, a flawed veteran.
Mostly, there was Thomas operating last season as the Browns’ main catalyst along the way to a 10-6 finish after they had four victories the year before.
In case you’re wondering, the 2007 Falcons also had four victories.
Need we say more? With Long, the Falcons could have their Thomas and instant hope. Said Dimitroff of Long, “Not only do you have his skills and his ability to be both a left and right tackle, but also what he brings to the table as far as his intelligence and his intangibles.”
They’ll draft him.
Well, they better.
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Blogging live from UGA-Xavier
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Washington, D.C. - In the 20 minutes that separated Georgia winning the SEC tournament and the announcement of the NCAA pairings, I’d pretty much decided the Bulldogs were going to Anaheim to play Stanford in Round 1. (Why? Because Georgia, owing to its tepid RPI, was apt to be a 14th seed, and Stanford, which I’d penciled in as a No. 3, would surely be placed in the only Round 1 California venue.)
I was right about the seeding, wrong about the locale.
For Georgia, that seemed a big fat break.
For today’s story about the history of No. 14 seeds, I interviewed the famous Dick Vitale, and he’s picking the Bulldogs to beat Xavier. He also said this: “I’d rather take my shot at Xavier than Louisville or Stanford.”
Louisville and Stanford (and Wisconsin, which beat Georgia this season and last) are the other No. 3 seeds. The Musketeers are good, but they’re the least imposing of that set of four. And if the Bulldogs could somehow win today, neither Purdue nor Baylor would seem impregnable in Round 2. (Baylor versus Georgia would be the Up-From-Scandal Bowl.)
But this is getting way ahead of things. The Bulldogs have to beat a No. 3 seed to stay in the tournament beyond 3 p.m. today, and I’m on record as picking them to lose. I am, as you know, often wrong. We’ll see what happens. Check back for live updates.
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